In applied linguistics generally and bilingualism research in particular, psychological variables remain a much under-investigated sub-category of individual differences compared with cognitive ones. To better understand the under-researched psychological effects of bilingualism, this study investigated well-being, a psychological construct, based on a big-data survey. Drawing upon a national survey (N = 12,582), we examined the influence of bilingualism (operationalised as foreign language (FL) proficiency) and 13 sociobiographical variables (e.g., socio-economic status, SES) on well-being. Among these 14 initial independent variables, perceived social fairness, SES, and health emerged as important predictors for well-being, with FL proficiency and national language (NL) proficiency as potentially important predictors; crucially, FL proficiency was more important than NL proficiency. As the first systematic attempt to link bilingualism with well-being, our study advocates (1) a more holistic perspective towards language (including NL and FL(s)) in any bilingual context and (2) fuller use of effect sizes.

在一般的应用语言学，特别是双语研究中，与认知变量相比，心理变量仍然是个体差异的一个研究不足的子类别。为了更好地了解双语的心理影响研究不足，本研究根据大数据调查调查了幸福感，这是一种心理结构。利用一项全国调查 （N = 12,582），我们研究了双语 （作为外语 （FL） 熟练度操作）和 13 个社会生物学变量 （例如，社会经济地位，SES） 对幸福感的影响。在这 14 个初始自变量中，感知社会公平、SES 和健康成为幸福感的重要预测因子，其中 FL 熟练度和国家语言 （NL） 熟练度是潜在的重要预测因子;至关重要的是，FL 熟练度比 NL 熟练度更重要。作为将双语与幸福感联系起来的首次系统性尝试，我们的研究倡导 （1） 在任何双语环境中对语言（包括 NL 和 FL（s））采取更全面的视角，以及 （2） 更充分地使用效应大小。